Let’s face it. Books for Dungeons & Dragons are expensive. The Dungeon Master’s Guide is no exception. You might wonder if you can run your games without a DM guide.
So, do you need a Dungeon Master’s Guide? Yes. Almost all DMs will need a Dungeon Master’s Guide. The DM Guide contains indispensable advice and rules for running an adventure or a campaign. But it also gives Dungeon Masters lots of tables needed to run a game. You need a Dungeon Master’s Guide to run your gaming sessions.
I guess it depends on how you want to DM. If for example you're running your campaign from a book then you don't need a MM as the stats for those creatures are provided. Unless you go off script then the additional monster stats in the MM are required. The DMG has a lot of useful info in it, but you could easily get away with the PG on its own as it explains most of the rules in there. So remember, you don't have to read through the entirety of the Dungeon Master's Guide before you DM. In fact much of the 5e DMG is about world-building, which you won't need if you're starting with a published adventure (and you should). Downtime in D&D is reduced to a role or just ignored at times. This is a huge missed opportunity and I will show you why. Downtime in D&D is a time where characters can express themselves, further the plot, create new things, and enhance your game.
Of course, you don’t need to use your Dungeon Master guide all the time. How often you need your DM guide really depends on your game. Here are my personal tips for using your Dungeon Master’s Guide effectively.
The Dungeon Master’s Guide is my favorite gaming manual. It’s full of useful information and handy tables, but sometimes it's too dense for its own good. That’s why I flagged my copy with 40 tabs for quick reference.
Learning How to be a Dungeon Master
Before you plan a grand scale campaign where the universe is at stake, you must first understand the fundamentals. That’s where your greatest weapon comes into play: The Dungeon Master’s Guide.
The DMG provides tips, tricks, and tools to help you Dungeon Master a game. Whether it’s a serious on-going campaign or a goofy one-shot, the DMG is designed to be easily read by all DM’s – be it experience or learning. But there is so much to learn. Where to start?
What Parts of the DM Guide do You Need to Read First?
Start out with the introduction (p.4 – 6). It briefly explains everything about the Dungeon Master’s Guide; from what being a DM actually means to how to use the book itself.
While the DM Guide is an excellent learning tool and resource book. The sequence in which chapters are laid out can be a little confusing.
For instance, the first two chapters (p. 9 – 68) deal with Gods and the multiverse. But they also cover details like dialects. That’s not the first thing you need to know if you’re a beginning DM or just learning about 5th edition D&D. Instead – after reading the introduction – I would skip to (p.25 – 38) which covers creating a campaign, play style, tiers of play, and flavor of fantasy.
Next, I would skip to chapter three: Creating adventures, and just continue from there. You can always come back to parts you skipped later.
No matter your game style, most Dungeon Masters will also need to read through part three of the DMG (Chapter 8, p. 235). It discusses various rules of the game. And dealing with experience points (p. 260) is something you’ll want a firm handle on before your first session.
Need To Build A World? The DMG Has Got You Covered!
Now that you understand the basics of 5e edition Dungeon Mastering, let’s focus on building your world. Your Dungeon Master’s Guide can help with your 42’s – what’s the deeper meaning to your character’s lives, universe, and everything in between?
Especially useful for homebrew worlds, a third of the Dungeon Master’s Guide is dedicated to helping you build your game world. It provides great examples of how to make your world more immersive for you and your players. Now is the time to read those parts you skipped earlier.
Building things like societies and religions are skills all DMs need and the Dungeon Master’s Guide provides them and more! The DMG poses questions that you might forget or overlook when building a game world and highlights the idea of adding depth into your game, be it in the history of a decayed pantheon (From p. 10) or a city ran through Magocracy (From p. 15).
While all of these resources are great, the DM guide doesn’t teach you how to do improvise. It doesn’t even teach you how to weave elements into a story. That’s why, here at DungeonVault, we’ve created Dungeon Master Class. It’s a free 5 lesson email course that will teach you how to play D&D without any prepwork. Perfect for both beginners and veterans. Scroll to the bottom of this page to sign up!
Needing the DMG During Your Game
You will need the DM Guide to learn how to DM and to prepare your games. But what about using the book during gaming sessions?
Even though your DM screen will probably contain some useful basic rules, it’s always helpful to have your Dungeon Master’s Guide to hand during gaming sessions – you never know when your players may decide to swan dive off a giant and into a crocodile’s gullet! And they will be looking to you for a ruling.
Bearing three hundred and twenty pages of content, it would be hard for any Dungeon Master to not need the DMG at some point. While the DM Guide has super-useful tables and advice for in-game use, unfortunately, they are irregularly spread throughout the book.
Below is a table of my personal note-worthy page numbers and their ratings (I’ve rated them on how applicable they can be to the average campaign and will change depending on your personal game).
Wuxia Weapons
Bored of saying “Enemy X, wielding a spear”? A useful table of alternative weapons to add more flavor to your game! Especially effective if you have a monk in your party and want unique monasteries. Page number 41.
More Weapons
Maybe your campaign isn’t set quite so in the middle ages? Here are some various weapons brought on by technological advancements. Page number 267.
Plane Simple
Summaries of the inner planes and their contents. Always handy to have on the fly. Page number 43.
Outer Plane List
Outer Planes. There’s a bunch of them. If you can’t remember or forget about the details of the great wheel cosmology, it’s easy to quickly flick through them during your session. Page number 58.
XP Chart
A must-have for most campaigns. Less useful if you are working with milestones. Still, most DMs will use this every gaming session. Page number 82.
Build-A-NPC
This is a great tool for when your players want to approach a generic NPC instead of the intricately designed, plot important character you spent three days making. I love how easy this is. Page number 90.
Weather
It is something we DMs easily forget about and yet, there is always some type of weather. And it will affect things like mood, visibility, choice of clothing and so on. It’s good getting into the habit of describing the weather once or twice each gaming session. Page number 110.
Underwater Rules
Great for when your players want to go swimming with krakens! And they will, Gods help us they will. Page number 115.
Vehicles
Your players will get tired of traveling by foot, particularly at higher levels – they’ll find a ride soon enough! There is so much untapped potential in just finding the perfect ride. Page number 119.
Travel
Your players have got to move right? Open oft file in outlook. A great tool for remembering how fast. Page number 242.
Under Siege
It’s not every day you get to DM a siege, some good siege items to add more flavor and action to your world. Page number 255.
It’s A Trap!
Traps are fun. Well, not for the players. Helps build fun death traps when your players like to snoop in places that haven’t been fully designed yet! The rules are so simple you can build most traps on the fly which makes this a great in-game resource. Page number 121.
Magical Mishaps
Got some mischievous magical shenanigans? here are some cool effects! Personally, I love to combine these with the traps. Page number 140.
Treasure Tables
Everyone likes some shinies! Helps you provide some rewards for your players, without needing much forethought. For most DMs this is the number one reason to buy the Dungeon Master Guide. And not without reason. There are so many great goodies here, besides all the shinies, that is. Page number 137.
Magic Items Descriptions
Great for making your players feel more powerful. Loads of pre-built items, so you don’t have to design them yourself. Page number 150.
Other Rewards
Are gems and gold getting old? These pages provide some inspiration to keep rewards fresh. Page number 227.
Poisons & Diseases
Want to give characters a slow and painful death? Here are a few pages on how to do just that. Page number 257.
Lingering Damage
Want to add more drama to your fights? Maybe an unexpected Natural 20 has been rolled and someone needs a serious injury? Lingering damage could be just what you are looking for! Page number 272.
The First Half Of The Name Of The Game!
Maybe your players have found some ancient tombs that you haven’t yet fleshed out? Use these pages to quickly generate an interesting dungeon. Page number 293.
Monsters By Environment
Has your druid just asked what type of beasties they can find in the local swamp? Here’s a good list for you! Page number 302.
Monsters By CR
Do You Need A Dmg To Dmg
Did you forget your session notes and need to pretend you didn’t? Here’s your answer to not throw a random monster and kill them! Or do… It’s you’re game. Page number 306.
Needing A DMG But Don’t Have One?
There are many ways the Dungeon Master’s Guide can enhance your game. And even if you know most of the content by heart, I find that rereading parts reminds me of things I’ve let slip.
In conclusion: The content of the DM Guide is top-notch, really well written, useful, and easy to understand. The way chapters are laid out can make it a bit hard to find tables fast during your game. But the table in this article should take care of that. Just copy the parts you like onto the backside of our free bookmark, stick it in your DM Guide and you’re set!
By Daniel Ball and Paul Camp, (Cover image: WotC)
A .DMG file is a container file commonly used to distribute applications for Mac OS X. Installing software from one of these requires you to mount the image and move its contents to your computer’s “Applications” directory.
One of the most common mistakes I see among new Mac users is fumbling with how to install and open .dmg files or new software. The process for installing new applications on your Mac can be confusing at first because it differs greatly from Windows’ software installation process. Nevertheless, the Mac method of installing software is actually quite simple and intuitive once you are accustomed to it. If your desktop is littered with DMG files and white “drive”-looking icons, read on!
Contents
What are .DMG Files?
DMG stands for Disk Image, and is a format commonly used to distribute files and applications among Apple computers. A DMG file is like a virtual DVD or hard drive. They can be “mounted” on your Mac in order to work with their contents, or even burned to an actual physical disc.
In order to understand the concept of a DMG disk image, think of a storage volume such as a CD, DVD, hard drive, or external drive. A DMG file is like one of these devices in that it serves as a means to encapsulate documents, images, software, and other files. The difference is that with a DMG, there is no physical storage medium. There is only the DMG file, which can be written to a hard drive, burned to a CD or DVD, or sent over the Internet.
In order to work with the contents of a DMG file, you must mount the the disk image to your system. This may sound daunting, however “mounting” a DMG file with Mac OS X is no more complicated than double-clicking it’ icon. The operating system will load the load image and place a new icon both on your desktop, and in the sidebar of the Finder. The icon will have the same name as the DMG, and you’ll be able to browse through its contents like any other folder.
Amd embedded gpu and apu driver for maccleverbucks. Once you are done working with the contents of the file, you will want to remove or “unmount” it from your system. Do this by opening the Finder and clicking the eject icon next to the virtual drive’s icon. Or, go to the Desktop, click once on the icon, and press CMD+E.
Also Useful:Best Gaming Laptops Under $2000
How to Install and Open .dmg Files on a Mac
Software installation with Mac OS X is very different than in the Windows world. On a Windows PC you run an installer, tick off a few checkboxes, and wait for the progress meter to reach completion. There usually is no such “installation wizard” on a Mac &emdash; you simply drag and drop the program into your computer’s “Applications” directory. The trick is that most Mac applications are distributed as images called DMG files Hardwareapple inc.. , and many new Mac users end up running applications directly from the image instead of installing them to the “Applications” directory.
Enough explanation, here’s how to install an OS X app from a DMG file:
- Find the downloaded file, which usually ends up in your Desktop or Downloads folder.
- Double-click the .DMG file to mount it. A new Finder window showing its contents should appear.
- If the window also contains a shortcut icon to “Applications”, drag and drop the app onto the shortcut.
- If not, double-click the mounted volume on your desktop and drag the app icon from there to the “Applications” icon in the Finder sidebar.
Further Explanation
Alright, that was the abridged version. Here’s the long version. I’ve just downloaded the DeskLickr application, and the DeskLickr_1.2.dmg is sitting on my desktop. I double-click it and a new icon labeled “DeskLickr 1.2” appears on my desktop. Here’s what my desktop looks like at this point:
Since most of the time a new Finder window also pops up when the image is ready for use, this one is now sitting on my desktop:
Different applications are going to show you slightly different Finder windows. Each application’s designers like to add their own artwork. Glitter aside, most applications are trying to tell you the same thing. See the arrow pointing from the DeskLickr icon to the “Applications’ shortcut? It’s telling you to drag and drop the icon into that folder. Once you’ve done so, the app will be installed.
If a program doesn’t provide a shortcut to the Applications folder, you’ll need to pop open a new Finder window. Press CMD+N to open a new window, then drag the program over to “Applications” in the left-hand side of the window.
Also useful: How to CTRL + ALT + DEL on a Mac
House Cleaning
Do You Need A Dmg To Dmc
Once the new program is installed it’s time to do some house cleaning. You no longer need the disk image you downloaded, so follow these steps:
- Close any Finder windows that have been left open.
- Eject the disk image (not the .DMG file). Click on its desktop icon, then press CMD+E.
- Delete the .DMG file by dragging it to the trash.
That’s it! Your new Mac application is ready to use. But wait…
Bonus Tip: Add Your New Application to the Dock
I knew you were going to ask, so I figured I would cut you off at the pass. In order to add the new application to the dock, follow these steps:
- Open up a new Finder window.
- Click on “Applications”.
- Locate your new program’s icon.
- Drag the icon to your Dock, and drop it wherever you like.
Do You Need A Dmg To Dms
Also Check:Cool Fortnite Names of 2020